Play the whole album - James Gang - Rides Again

If you have a Spotify or any other music streaming service that lets you listen to entire albums in one go, I've got some homework for you.

Just listen to James Gang's Rides Again.

Just for the guitar licks alone.

Do it.

But, they ALL played Batman!

 This Trivia Pursuit question from the 2008 edition doesn't have a correct answer anymore.

It's a sad state of affairs

It's very sad what is going on in our society as a result of Covid. Lost jobs, lost businesses, the evaporation of the arts scene, loneliness and depression as a result of the isolation and stress of not knowing what happens next, not knowing if one can pay their bills or rent.

Which is why, as Canadians, I think we are better off than the average American in this situation. While their governments (some, not all) are only interested in getting things back to normal as quickly as possible, ours at least has the courtesy to lend us a helping hand financially and not force us all back to work or school (until now) while things are risky.

Now that the economy is reopening, it has been my experience that even though we are being allowed to attempt a return to normal, the majority of people are still concerned and staying home. Restaurants are not at capacity, even though their capacity has been halved. Stores are not as full as they can be with lineups going down the block. Theatres are practically empty, even on a movie's opening weekend.

This says to me that at least as Canadians, we got the message loud and clear. Covid is a huge risk, and if there's a chance you have it, even if you don't show any signs of having it, we want to protect others from getting it too. Yes, there are some folks who, for various reasons, have decided that for them, and their family, and maybe even their friends, the risk has passed and they are willing to get together in a manner similar to how things were before the pandemic arrived.

But that is their choice and they make that decision for themselves. Except in more peculiar circumstances, that you decide to attend a wedding with 100 people, not wearing masks and not keeping a safe distance is your decision. A decision that thankfully, is only practised by a minority of people.

But what I cannot abide is when folks who think their rights are being infringed upon start attacking others who are following the health guidelines. Now we have people who are not only refusing to wear a mask inside places like restaurants and stores (even when local governments like Calgary have made it mandatory), they are now berating, disrespecting and threatening other customers and staff for being 'sheep', claiming that mask wearers and law abiding staff are impinging on their rights and other nonsense.

Let's be crystal clear on this folks. You have the right to be as stupid as you want in your own space. To take as many risks as you feel are justified. In your home. On your property. In your car. Because that doesn't put others' lives at risk. But the minute you step into a restaurant, a store, a plane, a bus, and you refuse to take precautions, you put other peoples' lives at risk. It's selfish, stubborn and it's unethical. They're putting their life at risk to sell you stuff. The least you can do is put on a freaking mask.

In times like these it's more important than ever to think about others rather than just yourself.

Small things 25 Sep

• According to official NASA documents, they have Aliens on the International Space Station. They also have Alien, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection - all on DVD.
• "When I'm sometimes asked when will there be enough [women on the supreme court]? And I say ‘When there are nine.’ People are shocked. But there'd been nine men, and nobody's ever raised a question about that." ~Ruth Bader Ginsberg
• Dear flat earthers: Even Aristotle knew the earth had to be round based on the ever changing starscape in the night sky, which could not happen if the earth was flat.
• Dear America: Contrary to what your president might be telling you, Canada is not looking to open its border with you anytime soon. Get the number of infected people in check, then we'll talk. P.S.: We would like to open the border. Heck, as it is I've already had to cancel what would have been a fantastic vacation in KSAN this fall. But no.
• Imagine if I told you a year ago, in September 2019, that in September 2020, two American NHL teams would be playing in the 2020 Stanley Cup final series. In Edmonton.
• What starts with a 'w' and ends with a 't'. It does, I swear!
• I've asked so many people what LGBTQ stands for. I have yet to get a straight answer.
• Stop worrying about government taking your guns. Worry about them taking your free health care and your pension.
  
  
  

In a Starbucks, try this:

When they ask your name, say "Some people call me the space cowboy."

Then lean in and add, "Some call me the gangster of love."

Then see if they write Maurice on your cup.

Google autosuggest is country specific

 

Proof that Google autosuggest is country context specific.

(CERB is a Canadian pandemic benefit)

Jacob Collier

This guy. 

He's a prodigy and although some of his stuff is a bit over the top for my taste, you just can't deny his musical prowess.

He sings and plays it all!

The 2nd song in this set is nice and funky.

So, it's a girl?

 Too soon?

Things I learned lately 25 Sep

• Charlie, from the Willie Wonka story, was supposed to be a black kid, according to a revelation from Roald Dahl's widow. 
• In the first 2 billion years of the earth's estimated 4.54 billion year history, there was no atmospheric oxygen.
• Near the East coast of Asia, on the Hunt-Lenox Globe, which was made in 1504, appear the words HC SVNT DRACONES, which means, "Here be dragons." It is guessed this refers to the komodo dragons in the Indonesian islands.
• The Eckert IV map projection does a better job reducing the gross distortion of land masses of the Mercator map projection we're used to. In particular, Africa, Australia and South America are much more representative of their real size.
  
  
  
• The first jigsaw puzzles were chopped up maps of Europe to teach kids geography.
• Point Nemo, a place in the Pacific Ocean, is so far away from land in every direction, that ISS astronauts get closer to it as they fly overhead.
• 43 years ago, Voyager I captured an historic photo. Earth and the moon in a single photo.
• As of 20 Sep 2020, If you subtract the number of deaths and recovered from Covid from the number of total cases, you're left with around 4 million Americans that are infected. In Canada, that number is 9,453.
• At least 36 people have died, more than 1,100 homes have been destroyed and almost 5,000,000 acres have been burned by fires in California, Washington and Oregon.
• The reason we poop out the corn we eat is because we can't digest the outer skin of corn, which is made of resilient cellulose.

Never stop pretending

 

Small things 18 Sep

• Has Trump said anything or offered any help regarding the wildfires?
  
  
  
• If free public libraries didn't exist and someone tried to invent them right now, they would be condemned as a socialist plot.
• Buying a house is like "Why can't you save up $50,000 so we can trust you with this house in case you don't pay your mortgage?" "Uh, because I've been paying $2000 a month for rent..."
• Frasier Crane (on Cheers): "Everybody, I'd like you to meet my date, Dr. Lilith Sternin, MD, PhD, EDD, APA."   Woody: "Boy it sure isn't spelled like it sounds...."

Prank stickers

 

Check out some of the things these wonderful prank stickers have been placed upon.

Not butter

 

Shaw technical issues

[This was written and happened during the first week of the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs]

Where do I begin? I guess it all starts with a technical glitch I have endured for many years. Sometimes, I'll turn on my TV and Shaw cable box and....... black screen no audio. Switch channels - perfect. Switch back - problem solved. Odd, but the fix is simple and quick.

But what is the cause? Bad signal? Bad hardware? Bad cabling? Who knows? Technicians have come numerous times for this and other issues and the problem persists. But this is just the start. It gets better.

I watch hockey. Specifically, I watch Montreal Canadiens games whenever I can get them, which unfortunately for someone living in YYC, is not very often, thank you NHL greedy bastards. Oh, sure, I can watch all the Habs games I want for a measly $300 a year. F that.

Anyway, on the rare occasion that I can get a Montreal game, I usually record it on the PVR because I'm not typically home in time to catch the face-off. 7 times out of 10, it works just fine. But 3 times out of 10, it randomly doesn't record anything. Nada. Black screen, no sound. This happened most recently on Tuesday night, game 2 of the Montreal/Philadelphia series. First game recorded, second game did not. No rhyme or reason.

So I contacted Shaw. 60+ minutes I will never get back. They tried a few excuses from their script (or imagination, hard to tell which). "You are not able to record live sporting events." Uh, no, that's not true. I do it all the time. Next? "You are not able to record 'some' live sporting events and this is not a Shaw issue, it's a business issue of the broadcaster." Nope. What else ya got? "The game has obviously been blacked out." Uh no. There are no blackouts during the playoffs. Nice try though. "Ask your hockey loving neighbours, they will tell you it's true." He actually said that. He's in Pakistan btw.

So obviously I'm not going to get to the bottom of why some games record and some randomly don't. Then this next thing happens.

This morning I decide to try another attempt at recording a live game because there's a chance I won't be home in time. I turn the TV on at around 8 am and access the channel listings guide built into the box. I know for a fact that the game is being broadcast on both CBC and Sportsnet West at 5 pm MST. In the guide, CBC is showing as broadcasting something else at 5 pm. Sportsnet West is showing as broadcasting nothing at 5 pm. Not "TBD" or "To be announced", nothing. So even an attempt to record the time slot results in an error, "Unable to record nothing" or words to that effect. I go online and check a multitude of TV listings sites and they all say the same thing - there's a live game at 5 pm on both those channels.

Time to call Shaw again, because I can't set up a recording if the guide is misinformed. I'm told that there's nothing wrong with the guide. I explain that it does not match the online listings anywhere. I'm told that they're looking at an online guide and it's showing what the Shaw guide is mistakenly showing (not the game). I ask, what site are you on? [tvtv.ca] I look for myself, it's the game on both channels. I say "How is it possible that you and I are looking at the same website and you see no game while I see the game? He asks how I got to that page. We walk through the steps together. He sees no game, I see the game. I ask, "Are you in Canada?" No. "Can I speak to someone in Canada?" No. It won't make a difference anyway. "Please explain why you can't see a game listed and I can." He could not. We're done here.

I happen to have a friend who lives nearby who used to work for Shaw. I call asking if he has any connections in the technical support area at Shaw. He does not, but he asked what was wrong. I tell him the whole story, including my past history. He asks one question? What kind of box do you have? I tell him I have an older Motorola box. Then he tells me something that I should have guessed but found too incredible to believe. Shaw is not interested in fixing any issue that might be related to older hardware, older technology. If I was on their most modern hardware (at a much higher cost), I might not have the issues at all and I would most certainly get more attention for the problem. I should get BlueSky or whatever it's called now, he says.

Unfortunately, Shaw doesn't have many options to choose from. You want a package? You can have Limited TV for $25 per month. Yeah. Wait for it. No box. 20 channels, 4 network channels (CBC. CTV, City, Global). That's it. No American networks. No HGTV. No TLC. It's like ordering a $25 appetizer and they toss a stale English muffin on your plate.

You want more? That'll be $95 per month for up to 114 channels. What exactly 'up to' means, I don't know. But that's no premium channels. Sigh.

[Update to answer some questions I got from some folks]

Telus plays the same sort of game as Shaw with their offerings. Optik TV Lite is only $25 per month. That gets you CBC, CTV, Glocal, City and Fox. Woo hoo! PVR rental $15 extra. Wireless box $5 extra. Plus they take their $150 pound of flesh for the install.

You can also choose to pay an extra $7 per month for an add-on that adds ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS and CBC News. So now we're up to $52 per month for less channels than you'd get in a Super 8 motel room.

They obviously are just using these shit offerings as leverage to get you to go with the full meal deal. For $160 per month you get a whole bunch of channels and theme packs, plus the hardware is free and they throw in Netflix, Prime, Crave and 300Mbps internet. So I mean, it's a great deal, but we were getting hosed at $100 a month for Shaw before. If we were home watching TV all day, that would be one thing.

I would be willing to pay per hour if we had all access. Because we watch maybe 2 hours of broadcast TV a week.

Cursive misinformation

 

Fire danger level = I warned you...

 

Things I learned lately 18 Sep

• The governor of Oregon said that she expects loss of life and property from their fires to be the worst in the state's history.
  
  
  
• Go look at a map and find Prince Edward Island. Now double its area. That's how much of California alone has burned this year. Its biggest fires count 5 of the top 10 fires of all time and the biggest is the number one of all time. Cause based on science? Yep. Climate change.
• The sphygmomanometer. Or as you'd call it - the blood pressure checker.
• The Canadian federal Liberals just made a basic universal income for all Canadians their top policy resolution for consideration at their next national convention. This is huge.
• IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is apparently still a thing.
• Google Maps now tracks wildfires.
• Cotton candy is known by different names around the world. “Candy floss” in the UK, “fairy floss” in Australia, “la barbe à papa” (Daddy’s beard) in France.
• The Dark Side of the Moon only spent one week at the top of the Billboard charts, but it went on to stay in the Top 200 albums from 1973 all the way through 1988, 741 weeks straight.
• Up to half of the stars in the universe are adrift without a galaxy to call home, most likely orphaned as a result of past galactic collisions wherein some of the stars escaped the new galaxy formations.

Nah, we keepin'

 

That's gonna be a completely different message when you open that side door.....

 

Small things 11 Sep

• Never confuse social media likes for truth.
  
  
  
• Adults react the same way they did when they were kids to the ice cream truck. But now it's the postal truck, or UPS, or FedEx bringing their online order.
• Just think of the vaccine as an anti-virus update for your body.
• Somewhere Miss Piggy just gave a karate chop to an effigy of Elon Musk.
• How many resume writers does it take to change a light bulb? One. Single-handedly managed the successful upgrade and deployment of new environmental illumination system with zero cost overruns and zero safety incidents.
• Coconut. Has hair. Gives milk. Mammal?
• The neighbourhood bees wait patiently while I refill the bird bath with water.

Thou shalt not

 

A pig wearing lipstick?

Redevelopment is unavoidable these days. But you always hope that whatever comes next will be better, nicer than what came before. There used to be an original bungalow around the block from us and once the owner died, their son tried to sell the home in a depressed market. But, after pressure from his siblings, he eventually did sell to a developer and we looked forward to see what would be erected on the property. That was two years ago. Yup. Two. Years. Ago.

The developer ever so slowly demolished the original house, dug a hole for the new foundation. Foundation in. New construction slowly coming along. A row of four townhouses. My neighbours had a better view of the progress and they were keeping us apprised of what was going on and what they saw was not pretty. Shoddy workmanship. Shortcuts taken. The progress was slow and that meant we all got to see the results of the work for long stretches of time.

The site was always littered with garbage. When there was a bin, it was always overflowing. It led to drive-by dumping, making the situation worse. Neighbours told them to clean up their act and were laughed at and told to "f" off. Even the safety was horrendous, with workers standing on planks strung across two ladders.

One of the things I noticed was that the stairs of the end unit were too narrow for the foundation footings on both sides as witnessed by this pic. This was reported to the City, who apparently did nothing. It's still like this today and they're not even trying to hide it!

More examples of lack of pride in workmanship. My neighbour and I saw this basement window left open and wondered if it had flooded and they were trying to air it out. Many original homes in the area had communal water wells in their back yards and other developments like this one had tried not to decommission the wells to disastrous results. The window wells are in good shape as you can see.

The comedy continued with shoddy workmanship in the garage, where one of the supports by the garage door openings was very crooked. The garage door installer didn't even attempt to install doors it was so bad. The workers tried to fix it with a sledgehammer, but it's still not good enough.

Even though they installed underground sprinklers, they managed to let the newly laid sod dry to a crisp. Real estate signs have been planted on the front lawns for so long now, they're falling over, or maybe being vandalized by residents who have lost their patience. Hard to say.

Anyway, these horrible excuses for homes will go on sale, marketed as luxury town homes at some point and I feel bad for whoever gets suckered into buying them, based on everything we've watched over these two years of construction. The market is saturated and sales are slow. The owners will not likely get what they want. Waiting to see what they list for.

Denial

 

Things I learned lately 11 Sep

• There are more people of Mexican descent in the US than there are people in all of Canada.
  
  
  
• In studies where people were asked their moral or ethical beliefs on things versus their actions on those same topics, people diverged greatly between their stated belief systems and how they actually lived their lives.
• The first touch screen in a car was the 1986 Buick Reatta.
• They've found evidence of rust (hematite) on the moon. Possibly caused by oxygen leaking from our atmosphere and hitching a ride on earth's magnetic field which trails behind us like a windsock.
• It does not take 7 years to digest a piece of gum. It passes right through because it's indigestible.

Canadian graffiti

 

Small things 4 Sep

• In order to empathize with someone's experience you must be willing to believe them as they see it and not how you imagine their experience to be. ~Brené Brown
• Canada should launch a trade investigation into to assess the impact of American exports of general assholishness and douchebagery. (In response to Trump wanting to launch a trade investigation to assess the impact of our lobster exports)
• Is smacking someone upside the head an acceptable way to check for fever?
• The longer you wait to buy video games, the cheaper they get.
• Whenever a store employee asks me if they can help me, I usually say, "Can you help me find my wife?" It usually gets a smile, but one time, the employee said, "I might be able to get you an upgrade..." I laughed, politely declined and said, "I'm going to tell her you said that."
• Am I the only one who has a smug smile on my face whenever someone races past me only to stop at the next traffic light?
• North Americans call it gas, but it's not even. It's a goddamned liquid.
• Which came first, pie the chart or pie the baked good?
• Alternate word for 'asthma': breathn't
• Alternate word for 'wake': unsleep.

Covid madness

I’ve watched people I don’t know deny Covid’s danger online, but I never thought I’d come face to face with the ignorance I witnessed this week at work. 

Snippets of conversation:

"Why should I have to wear a mask in the store if most other people are wearing a mask?"

Why? To do your part and both protect yourself from Covid and protect others in case you're infected and don't know it. A very selfish attitude to say the least.

"I’m not taking the vaccine when it’s made available."

Smart. Also heard by this person, "I'm not an anti-vaxxer, but...." Sorry. The minute you utter those words you may as well stop talking because the next thing you're going to say is going to prove that you're an anti-vaxxer. 

"They better not force it on us."

Or what? You'll protest en masse with no masks on? Keep your kids out of school?

"There are people making a lot of money from this vaccine."

Suddenly everyone is upset at pharmaceutical industry profits. Where have you been the last 40 years?

"More people died from the flu."

This is possibly the biggest urban legend there is right now. While the true mortality of COVID-19 will take time to fully understand, the data so far indicates that the crude mortality ratio (the number of reported deaths divided by the reported cases) is between 3% and 4%, the infection mortality rate (the number of reported deaths divided by the number of infections) will be lower. For seasonal influenza, mortality is usually well below 0.1%.

"If people get sick, they won’t know if it’s flu or Covid. How convenient for the people who make the tests. Lots of money being made on these tests."

Still missing your point.

"The vaccine was made too fast."

So was your decision not to take it.

"The vaccine wasn’t tested enough."

If I'm a company making vaccine, I'm probably weighing the risk of releasing too early and risking my reputation versus waiting too long and allowing more people to die.

"Who knows if the vaccine will cause Alzheimer’s in people 20 years from now."

Show me one person, using verifiable facts, who contracted Alzheimer's from a vaccine. Go on. One.

"I heard about someone who suffered complications from the flu vaccine."

I know people who get really sick drinking milk. I bet you drink it by the gallon.

"Have you ever heard of “Big Pharma”?"

Yes. Have you heard of QAnon?

"Why would I talk to my doctor about Covid? They’ve been out of school for many years! What would they know about Covid?"

I honestly almost didn't have a response to this ridiculous utterance. I bet the health experts on TV haven't been to university in a few years either, yet they seem to know an awful lot about Covid.

"It’s just my opinion, I’m allowed to have my opinion."

You sure are. But in this case, you would have been better off keeping it to yourself.

Gerrymandering

 

Why black holes are astonishing

It's very difficult to understand black holes because they don't seem to obey the laws of physics. Kip Thorne does a damned good job trying to make the implausible seem understandable.

Here's part one.

And part two. They're not too long.

Do they have to put Jalapeno in EVERYTHING?

 

Things I learned lately 4 Sep

• On a good dark night, no moon, no city light pollution, and good eyesight, you can see, with the unaided eye, about 3,000 stars. The brightness of a full moon overpowers starlight intensity to a point where there are then only about 300 stars still visible.
  
  
  
• Trump's trade policies have not improved its trade deficit, which now stands at a 12-year high of $64B
• As of 28 August, the US had 3,601,756 active Covid cases (recovered and death numbers subtracted from the total). while Canada had 5,101 active Covid cases.
• Under Trump, only 5 miles of border wall has been built where none existed before. All other wall building is replacement of older, smaller fences.
• The terminal velocity of a penny is 30-50 mph, not enough to kill someone.
• Nowhere in the bible does it say that hell is ruled by Satan.
• Milk does not increase mucous when you have a cold.
• A sprinkle of salt does not help water boil faster.